Aqueous binders have been used for a variety of purposes, particularly for the preparation of coating compositions, adhesives, and impregnants. In these applications, the binders have various functions, such as sealing of pores in a porous substrate, or film formation on the surface of a substrate, which film may serve as protective layer or as functional layer such as adhesion layer, decorative layer, reflective layer, thermally insulating layer, or layer with certain electric or magnetic properties.
The chemical nature of the binder is decisive for the adhesion, mechanical, and chemical properties of the film or layer formed. While there is a certain range of properties available for a specific chemical system by modification of the basic polymer, determined by the kind of polymer formed in the crosslinking reaction that leads to a solid film or layer, it is frequently desired to be able to tailor the properties of the polymers formed in the crosslinking reaction in a way of combining e.g. the gloss of an alkyd resin, the lightfastness of an aliphatic polymer such as aliphatic acrylate copolymers, the corrosion protection of an epoxy resin system, the scratch resistance of silicones, and the mechanical and chemical resistance of polyurethanes.